When Holidays are Hard

End-of-school-itis is a real thing. I had heard tell of it from other parents, but with two school-agers, I now get it. At the end of the year, their brains are so full of math, sight words, playground games, and other miscellaneous fun facts that there is no longer space for silly things like house rules, manners, or sharing skills. And so, we spent our holiday weekend rather frayed on the parenting front as we reminded people for the one-trillionth time to eat over their plates or to put a toothbrush in your mouth to actually brush teeth. This morning felt like a marathon, By 7:43, we had answered approximately 1,279,653 questions. By the way, they got up at 7:37!

That should not imply that we didn't have fun this weekend. We really did. There were grandparents and Auntie, bike time, a picnic, lots of time playing with neighbors, and a neighborhood party with cake. But sometimes that fun felt harder than it should. There was more shaping (or reshaping) of behavior, reminders of expectations, and fits because of logical consequences than should be necessary.

We caved to tiny blond(e) pressure and now have family passes to ValleyFair. Because today was a chilly, windy, rainy day. Which meant it was a perfectly non-crowded day to go (as long as we had umbrellas for the 10 minute showers that randomly popped up). We had a good time together and enjoyed some better attitudes and behavior. Until we came home and that skipped nap situation reared its head. Then something funny happened. The power went out. And strangely, eating dinner, taking showers, and reading books by lantern restored us a bit.

We may have stumbled our way into summer, but we also learned that as long as we have each other - and a lantern, we will be okay.